‘I didn’t know if I was going to get out’: Survivor recounts months at Kirkland COVID-19 outbreak

When residents at Life Care Center of Kirkland started getting sick in February, it took weeks to find out for sure what it was. The COVID-19 outbreak was identified the last weekend in February and loved ones of patients struggled to get answers from the nursing home.

Susan Hailey, 77, was recovering from knee surgery and then fell and broke her ankle. She watched the virus spread through the nursing home as other patients were taken to the hospital and never came back. Her roommate died, and Hailey contracted COVID too.

For weeks, which stretched into months, her daughters sat outside her window. Unable to visit in person and hug her, they offered the comfort they could over the phone.

“That was terrible, that was truly terrible because we’re an affectionate family and I couldn’t touch them,” remembered Hailey.

Inside the nursing home, Hailey tried to find out what she could from staff. Outside, her daughters couldn’t get answers. They were desperate and started attending the media briefings held in the parking lot .

“It wasn’t truthful and we knew it. That’s really frustrating for them to make the comments that weren’t true. We were there every day,” said Carmen Gray, Hailey’s daughter.

It took another six months before Hailey left Life Care Center of Kirkland.

Chuck Sedlacek, 87, fell and hit his head, he was recovering at Life Care when COVID swept through, eventually killing 46 residents.

Sedlacek’s five children fought for his care. His son, Scott Sedlacek, contracted COVID, he’d visited his father at the nursing home before it was locked down to visitors. Chuck Sedlacek tested positive too.

From Scott Sedlacek’s last visit inside the nursing home, until now,  he’s only been able to hug his father once. It was last March when his dad needed a brain scan at Evergreen and he had to lift him on to a bed.

In June, Chuck returned to his care center in Redmond where he lived before his fall.

“I hate to say this but it really was the beginning of the end,” said Scott Sedlacek, “Coming out of Life Care he is now pretty much confined to bed and we don’t think he is ever going to get out.”

Cox Media Group